August 15, 2011

Week 4 of Transfer 13 - August 15th, 2011

Being an Assistant to the President is definitely not the easiest thing... Constantly going and never time to slow down. I love it though and I am so grateful for what I'm learning. I can't believe I will be hitting my 18th month mark this week. That is insane. When I look back at the beginning of my mission and remember all the missionaries who were at their 18th it seems crazy, they are all gone! And have been gone forever. My life has changed 180 degrees due to my mission. I can't describe what my mission means to me. I love it. I love Jesus Christ, I love the Gospel and I love the scriptures. By the way you should read "The Inconvenient Messiah" it is a great talk. This past week we had two of the four zone conferences (we group of zones) and this week we will finish them off. We had zero baptisms this past week which broke our seven week run of weekly baptisms (sometimes more than weekly) but this weekend it's picking back up once again. Let me share with you some of my experiences from this past week.

We are teaching this lady who's name is Diana. She is 25 years old and just the greatest person to teach. When we first met with Diana she said she wasn't interested in baptism but just wanted to learn more about the church. She was baptized two years ago in a christian church and was happy with where she was at. Well even though she told us that right from the beginning we invited her to be baptized on the first lesson and prepare for the 20th of August. She actually laughed at us and said no! Although she accepted the invitation to pray and ask God if it was necessary to be baptized and if the Book of Mormon was true. Second lesson she came doubting her Faith in Christ due to some SERIOUS trails in her life which she didn't share with us at the time. We threw our lesson plan out the window and taught to her needs. Ended up focusing the purpose of trails in this life and our moral agency. At the end of the lesson she said that she never felt anything like what she felt during that lesson, but still said no to baptism. Our third lesson she said yes to baptism but maybe in a few months. The fourth lesson she said, "Elders I want to be baptized on the original date you invited me, August 20th. Can I?" It has been amazing working with Diana, she will be baptized this weekend at 11am. Now you may understand why missionaries invite others to be baptized with a specific date on the first lessons. When someone is ready for the challenge, there is no need for the challenge.

I don't have time to even begin describing the progression of Dona! Remember she is the mother of Daniel Manar who we recently baptized. She has just taken off in her learning of the Gospel and is truly converted. We love her. She has sacrificed so much but the Lord is blessing her ten fold. She will be baptized this Saturday as well. It is nice having Daniel retaught the principles of the Gospel too.

There is this shady looking apartment complex in our area we call the "white buildings". We have names for all the apartments, just makes it easier. For the past month both Elder Bertolino and myself have felt prompted to tract them, but haven't found the time to do so. We always discuss and say we need to but finally this past Saturday we had the entire day to knock them down. Miracles occurred while we tracted those streets. From the beginning of the day I had a prayer in my heart that we would find someone because we needed to catch up! We hardly had anytime at all this past week to FIND. The second door we knocked a pretty lady covered in tattoo's opens the door and says as if she just woke up, "I am not a member... but I am interested. Can you come back?" We were a little confused and thought she was just playing with us but after some further conversation it turns out she really is. She has been thinking about it for awhile and wants to prepare for baptism. We are teaching her tomorrow. Other great things happened. Ran into people who recently had children and married. Basically the perfect time to find people.

There is my week for you. Thank you for the wonderful update from home and looking forward to hear from you next week. Please keep me updated with Paige and Lindsay, I proud of them. I imagine it would be humbling experience working with some of those kids. I can't wait to see pictures as well. I love you Mom and Dad, don't forget to read that talk! Maybe do it today as a little family home evening. Have a great week!

Love Elder Pizzey.